CrystEngComm Blog

A facile new preparation of shape-controlled tungsten trioxide (WO₃) sensors is reported in a recent paper by Zhang et al.  These sensors show good selectivity towards the hazardous gas hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) at a relatively low operating temperature.

Detection of hazardous gases is necessary to monitor environmental pollution and ensure levels do not exceed legally permitted limits.  In the case of H₂S, the general industry ceiling limit is 20 ppm.  At concentrations of above 50 ppm, eye damage is likely and at higher concentrations (above 320 ppm) pulmonary oedema and breathing problems resulting in death can occur.  There is, therefore, a demand for cheap, reliable and selective sensors for identifying low concentrations of H₂S.

Metal-oxide semiconductors such as WO₃ are attractive potential sensors which are relatively cheap and easy to fabricate.  As the sensing ability of the particles depends on their morphology, the preparation of shape-controlled particles is a requirement.  Zhang et al achieve this by reacting sodium tungstate and potassium sulfate in an acidic environment.  Adding oxalic acid and heating at 100^oC then calcining the resulting product produces WO₃ microflowers, of diameter 16 μm. Study of the reaction shows it can be divided into four processes.  Crucially, during the final stage, needle-like nanosheets grow radially from central particles to produce a flower-like morphology (see the scheme below).

These particles have excellent potential for application as H₂S sensors – at 160^oC they show high sensitivity and sensor response along with good repeatability and selectivity towards H₂S.  The high performance of WO₃ microflowers is related to their structure.  They are assembled from nanosheets composed of several nanowhiskers in parallel, giving highly exposed surfaces and so more pathways for gas absorption and electron exchange.  The nanosheets are homogeneous and single-crystalline so electron transport can occur between particles without overcoming boundary barriers which would decrease the sensitivity.

For more details, read the full paper at:

Low-temperature solvothermal synthesis of hierarchical flower-like WO₃nanostructures and their sensing properties for H₂S
Bingxin Xiao, Qi Zhao, Chuanhai Xiao, Tianye Yang, Pan Wang, Fei Wang, Xiaodong Chen and Mingzhe Zhang
CrystEngComm, 2015
DOI: 10.1039/C5CE00870K

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Gwenda Kyd has a PhD in metallocarborane chemistry from the University of Edinburgh. Other research work includes the spectroscopic study of the structure of glasses and organometallic electron-transfer reactions and the preparation of new inorganic phosphors. She has recently published a book on chemicals from plants.

A new paper by Wang et al. reports the facile synthesis of dispersed polyacrylic acid (PAA)/calcium carbonate nanoparticles which show ultrahigh loading capacity for the liver cancer drug doxorubin (DOX), in addition to its pH sensitive release.

While calcium carbonate particles are attractive potential drug delivery vehicles due to their biocompatibility and pH sensitivity, previously synthesised particles have been micrometer sized and show only limited drug uptake, both of which present barriers to their use.   These issues have now been overcome.  Using PAA-sodium salt as a template, PAA/calcium carbonate particles were produced with an average size of 120 nm by ion exchange followed by heating in carbon dioxide (see diagram below).

The presence of carboxylate groups in PAA is the root of the new nanoparticles’ high uptake of positively charged molecules such as DOX– up to 98 % loading efficiency was observed.  Release of DOX was shown to be faster in mildly acidic conditions like that in extracellular cancer cells, allowing targeting of these cells.

The anti-cancer activity of DOX-loaded PAA/calcium carbonate particles in vitro was compared to DOX-free particles and free DOX using the standard MTT assay.   Cytotoxicity of free DOX was similar to that of the DOX-loaded particles, while the DOX-free particles showed no cytotoxicity.   The performance of free-DOX was also compared to DOX-loaded nanoparticles in vivo.   Compared to the control, the group treated with DOX-loaded nanoparticles showed a 76 % reduction in liver tumour size, while the group treated with free DOX showed a 41 % reduction.   In addition, there were no toxic effects observed for DOX-loaded particles.

These results demonstrate the potential application of PAA/calcium carbonate nanoparticles as delivery vehicles for doxorubin.  Further studies are being carried out to investigate the inclusion of magnetic and/or fluorescent compounds to produce multifunctional materials for simultaneous cancer diagnostic and therapeutic application.

For more information, see the full paper at:

Designed preparation of polyacrylic acid/calcium carbonate nanoparticles with high doxorubicin payload for liver cancer chemotherapy
Hanzhu Shi, Lu Li, Lingyu Zhang, Tingting Wang, Chungang Wang, Dongxia Zhu and Zhongmin Su
CrystEngComm, 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5CE00708A

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Gwenda Kyd has a PhD in metallocarborane chemistry from the University of Edinburgh. Other research work includes the spectroscopic study of the structure of glasses and organometallic electron-transfer reactions and the preparation of new inorganic phosphors. She has recently published a book on chemicals from plants.

A new paper by Yu-Bin Dong et al reports a metal-organic framework (MOF) which not only reversibly adsorbs two different classes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), but within each class also shows selectivity allowing separation of chemically similar examples.

VOCs are widely used in the chemical industry but their release into the environment is undesirable, as they can cause damage both to the environment and to human health.  Porous materials such as MOFs are attractive as potential adsorbents of VOCs and could also allow separation of examples with similar boiling points, which proves difficult by other methods such as distillation.

The new MOF consists of ditriazole-N-butylcarbazole ligands bridging Cu ions, forming a framework with square-like pores.  The ligand butyl groups point into the pores, making them hydrophobic.   The adsorption of VOCs classified as chlorocarbons (e.g. CH₂Cl₂) and aromatic solvents such as benzene and toluene were shown to be fully reversible under ambient conditions.

Tests on the selectivity towards chlorocarbons showed that CHCl₃ was adsorbed in preference to CH₂Cl₂ from a mixture.  This suggests that, unusually, selectivity may be based on the polarity of the molecules rather than the size – CHCl₃ is larger but less polar than CH₂Cl₂.

In the case of the aromatic molecules, it proved possible to separate benzene and toluene from mixtures of toluene/ethylbenzene/xylene and ethylbenzene/xylene, respectively.   In both these systems, the larger molecules are adsorbed in preference to the smaller (benzene or toluene, respectively) – see diagram below.

Rather than being determined by the size or polarity of the solvent molecules, this can be explained if the hydrophobic properties are considered.  More hydrophobic molecules, such as ethylbenzene, are preferentially adsorbed into the hydrophobic pores present in the MOF, where they form favourable hydrophobic interactions.

The MOF reported here adds to the range available that show specific properties with regards to adsorption and separation of VOCs, unusually demonstrating specificity related to both the polarities and hydrophobicity of the VOCs.

For more information read the full paper at:

CrystEngComm, 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5CE00547G

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Gwenda Kyd has a PhD in metallocarborane chemistry from the University of Edinburgh. Other research work includes the spectroscopic study of the structure of glasses and organometallic electron-transfer reactions and the preparation of new inorganic phosphors. She has recently published a book on chemicals from plants.

In a recent paper, Langford et al report the formation of three new molecular porous materials with tunable channels.  Tunability of the size and shape of the channels is important in the design of materials for gas sensing, guest exchange, catalysis and drug delivery.  Other important factors such as thermal and solvent stabilities are also good.

The new compounds are readily prepared from tin(IV) porphyrin phenolates. Their structures feature a one-dimensional hourglass-shaped channel lined with methyl groups.  The nature of the channel is readily varied by changing the methyl substitution of the phenolate component.  In this way, the pore radius can be varied from 3.1 Å to 4.5 Å (see diagram below, showing the three compounds down the crystallographic c axis with channels shown as orange spheres and phenolic methyl groups lining the channel shown in purple).

The compounds are robust compared to other molecular porous materials, thought to be due to a combination of stabilisation by hydrogen bonding and stacking of the aromatic groups.  In combination with the tunability, this suggests potential use for guest exchange or in small molecule capture applications and further investigation of this is ongoing.

For more information see the full paper at:

Supramolecular materials with robust and tunable channels constructed from tin(IV)porphyrin phenolates
Shuang Wang, Craig Forsyth and Steven J. Langford
CrystEngComm, 2015,17, 3060-3063

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Gwenda Kyd has a PhD in metallocarborane chemistry from the University of Edinburgh. Other research work includes the spectroscopic study of the structure of glasses and organometallic electron-transfer reactions and the preparation of new inorganic phosphors. She has recently published a book on chemicals from plants.